6 Group Unavailable
Shortly after take off from Ballykelly on an operational mission, the aircraft crashed into Lough Foyle with the loss of all 9 crew: A launch from 60 Air Sea Rescue Marine Craft Unit based in Lough Foyle was ordered out to search for the aircraft but was hampered by thick fog, it being daybreak before the wreckage and 5 bodies were discovered, the cause of the crash was never discovered. In 1982 a propeller from one of the Liberators engines was recovered by a Lynx helicopter from 655 Sqn AAC, Ballykelly and mounted outside the Sergeants Mess. In the operations record book for 60 ASRMCU it is recorded that on 15 November 1943, the body of Sqn Ldr Cooper was carried to Moville Beacon on a launch, transferred to a vessel of the Royal Navy and interred at sea
Sergeant WJ Barber 1239595 Name on Runnymede Memorial; Sergeant EJ Brown 1316499 Name on Runnymede Memorial; Sqn Ldr LF Cooper 33231 Name on Runnymede Memorial; Flt Sergeant JA Deschamps R/141550 RCAF Burried Limavady, St Mary's RC Churchyard; FO DG Evans 132703 Pilot Burried Tenby, St Mary's Church Cemetery; lt Sergeant NKP Hickson 421278 Name on Runnymede Memorial ;Warrant Officer FW Hutchinson 919425 WOp Chingford Mount Cemetery Essex; Sergeant D Kirkwood 1698515 Name on Runnymede Memorial ;Flt Sergeant SAH Richards R/113705 RCAF WOp Tamlaght Finlagan CofI Churchyard, Ballykelly, Potential War Grave
source: Malcolm Deeley, Ulster Aviation Society
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